Brian Regan

Ryan Seacrest is enamored of Adam Lambert! Last year when Adam performed "Whataya Want From Me" Ryan practically sparkled as he spoke to Adam afterward: "Now THAT was a performance," I remember him saying.

If you read my blog, you know I agree with Ryan. Last night's American Adam performance was no different. You can only talk about Adam's voice the way connoisserus talk about wine: the undertones, the aftertaste, the bouquet, the lovely appearance, and the glorious purity of the serenade. God has certainly imbued him with a gift.

Another great surprise--to me, anyway--was David Cook's rendition of Simple Mind's "Don't You (Forget About Me), which I thought was excellent and will purchase on iTunes, along with the original. For those of us for who thought the Breakfast Club WAS the eighties, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is our anthem. David Cook did right by it.

My revised take on American Idol 2011: Call me ignorant (uh, no, don't), but in my third year of Idol viewing, I've concluded there's no way these selections and eliminations are left to the American Public. Just like the presidential election, we put our votes in, but there's an electoral college who make the actual appointments.

Think about it: The winner is going to be a Ford spokesman for one year. You think Ford is going to hand that casting over to people who text in three hundred votes a night for their favorite? I don't think so. Even the Top Ten is a product; they go out on tour over the summer--a product that earns money, promotes the singers, and keeps aflame the machine that is American Idol. The elements of a production that big aren't left to the fastest fingers on the iPhone.

All that said, I think the talent this year is incredible, but limited. One blows my mind. The rest are excellent, but do not surpass the bar set by Adam Lambert. Hey, I'm just repeating what Ryan said.

Anyway, here are my Top Ten:

1. Casey Abrams (Casey! You are so smokey blue jazz--I see you on the same ticket with Harry Connick, Jr.2. James Durbin (James, you can do it! Though you rocked with Judas Priest, it felt superficial. More like Wednesday night, please; more of anything that means something to you so that it can mean something to us.)

Yes, that's all I have for my Top Ten. And now, here are my illegal favorites:1. Adam Lambert2.3.4.5.6. Steven Tyler7. Casey Abrams8. James Durbin

A Whole Lot of Lucky

me & jack

The Summer of Moonlight Secrets

Violet

Scholastic Book Trailer for Violet Raines

Thoughts on Writing

"If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster." --Isaac Asimov

"It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up, because by that time I was too famous." --Robert Benchley

"When writers meet, they are truculent, indifferent, or over-polite. Then comes the inevitable moment. A shows B that he has read something of B's. Will B show A? If not, then A hates B; if yes, then all is well." --Cyril Connolly"Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to." --Carl Van Doren

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." --Gene Fowler"I always write a good first line, but I have trouble writing the others." --MoliFre

"What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window." --Burton Rascoe

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." --Gloria Steinem

"I love being a writer; what I can't stand is the paperwork." --Peter De Vries

"This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again." --Oscar Wilde"I will tell you a story." --Jesus (Matthew 21:28, CEV)